What To Do

What to do in Beer

Little Village, Big Life

Beer is a little village in the heart of East Devon, with a wide range of things to do within the village as well as in the surrounding area.

If you like the outdoor life, Beer is an ideal centre for all sorts of activities on land and on the water. It’s on the long-distance South West Coastal Path that stretches over 600 miles along the coasts of four of the most beautiful counties in Britain. It has a sheltered beach where sailing dinghies and fishing boats launch into Lyme Bay, and that is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. It’s an ideal entry point to the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has outdoor train rides, indoor Wurlitzer concerts, underground smugglers caves to explore and lots more.

And it has pubs and cafés and wine bars and galleries and shops where you can enjoy local food and beer and even local wine, and find something to take home to remind you of Beer. Plus it has accommodation of all types so that visitors can stay in Beer and enjoy it for longer.

Beer Village

Like the brook that runs through it, the village of Beer flows down to the beach from the surrounding hills. It has a variety of locally-owned shops, galleries, pubs, cafés and a wine bar, two churches (one of which houses the oldest Wurlitzer organ in the UK) and the Mariners’ Hall where many village activities are held. Jubilee Gardens overlook the beach and sea and are a place to pause if you’re walking the South West Coast Path.

Beer Beach

Beer Beach is a sheltered and beautiful south-facing shingle beach surrounded by limestone cliffs. As well as being a family-friendly beach for holidaymakers, it’s also a working beach with an active fishing fleet bringing in catches of shellfish and fishing trips for visitors to catch mackerel. With beach cafés, fresh fish shop, deck chairs and surrounding pubs and restaurants, it is the exactly how you imagine a place to have a classic English seaside day trip or holiday.

Beer Beach

The beach is the focal point of the village and an annual Regatta with activities is held each year in August. Many people return again and again – they visited Beer as children and now come back with their children!

Beer Quarry Caves

A vast man-made complex of underground caverns with mighty halls of vaulted roofs and pillars of Beer Stone which have been likened to a vast underground cathedral. See for yourself the methods used to quarry and deliver the huge blocks of stone, the working conditions, the hardships endured and the dangers faced daily by the work-force using only the light from a flickering tallow candle. Beer Quarry Caves is also internationally important as a bat hibernaculum.

Beer Quarry Caves

The Caves are usually open from April to the end of October. They also run events during the season. Details of their fully guided tours can be found here.

Fine Foundation Centre

Find out about the local geology, from the pebbles on the beach to the famous Beer Stone, used in buildings all over the country… and even for experiments in space. The Centre by the beach has tanks full of marine life as well as stories about the local community, and is run by local volunteers

Fine Foundation Centre

Come and visit our centre at the bottom of Sea Hill. You can even do a five minute beach clean whilst visiting!

Pecorama

Pecorama stands proudly above the village of Beer, high on the hillside overlooking the sea. For families, garden lovers and model railway enthusiasts alike, there is something for everyone to make your day out really special. Pecorama includes the Beer Heights Light Railway, a model railway exhibition, the PECO model shop as well as the Millenium Gardens, Secret Garden and Wildway. For when you’re hungry, it also has the Garden Room Restaurant and the Play Station Buffet.

Pecorama

Pecorama offers a perfect day out for railway enthusiasts and garden lovers, and is truly entertaining for all the family.

South West Coast Path

Following the South West Coast Path can be part of a long-distance trek or just a day’s walk. Beer sits right on the Path, providing a base from which to walk or a stopping-point along the way with a wide range of accommodation and food. You can walk east to Lyme Regis and come back again on a bus the same day. You can walk west to Branscombe for lunch and be back in Beer before dinner-time.

South West Coast Path

The views from the west of Beer are towards the red sandstone cliffs above Branscombe, Salcombe Regis, Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton.

Beer Wurlitzer

Dispatched from the Wurlitzer factory in North Tonawanda, USA, on the 1st December 1924, this was the first Wurlitzer theatre organ to be exported to the United Kingdom. Its original home was at the Picture House cinema in Walsall. It has been installed at The Congregational Church situated in Fore Street since 1957.

Beer Wurlitzer

The Wurlitzer continues to entertain the public on a monthly basis in Beer, as well as being used to accompany the Church services on a Sunday. Check out the concert timetable here.